The Wedding Days
As in most UFO productions, this film is an enjoyable
contemporary mix of drama, romance and comedy. In some ways though the
film doesn’t feel as smooth, glossy or energetic as many of the other UFO
films. Though James Yuen has some wonderful writing credits to his name
(He is a Woman, She is a Man and A Moment of Romance among many others)
this was his first as director and it shows in the inconsistent quality
between different scenes.
There are many wonderful things though about this
film. The acting performances are excellent all around – not only from
the leads – but also from many of the supporting actors. Lets leave Michael
Wong out of that statement – not that he is terrible – but he just acts
like Michael Wong always does. His dialogue is delivered in a mix of Cantonese
and English, which must be very confusing to those around him. No one addresses
this oddity until late in the film when Jordan Chan in frustration yells
out that he can’t understand a word Wong is saying!
This film is very female oriented with the men
sitting on the sidelines for much of the story. The point of view also
seems very much slanted towards a woman’s perspective. Now since a male
– James Yuen - wrote this, I am not sure how legitimate a viewpoint this
is. The film tells the story of two women who are very much at a point
in their lives when they want to get married. The men they are in relationships
with are not nearly as keen.
The film begins with a wedding taking place upon
a bus in HK and two old friends – Anita Yuen and Charlie Yeung - meet for
the first time in years. Charlie owns a wedding store and is in the
middle of an unhappy relationship with a married man. Though we hear the
man a few times on the phone making excuses why he can’t break it off with
his wife, he never is seen - again re-emphasizing how much of a woman’s
film this is. Anita is involved with Michael who is divorced and she wants
to get married in the worst way. Jordan Chan is the wedding photographer
in Charlie’s shop and provides most of the comic relief. It is quite obvious
to everyone but Charlie that he is enamored with her – but she only sees
him as a friend.
Finally Michael agrees to a simple wedding (after
Anita lies to him that her mother has cancer and wants to see her daughter
get married!) – but Anita slowly starts pushing the boundaries of a simple
wedding to include a church wedding and hundreds of guests. Charlie has
to come to grips with whether she really loves the married man or whether
it is simple inertia that keeps her going with him.
There are some excellent small roles performed
by Eric Tsang as a tailor and Christine Ng as the married man’s wife (click
here to see pictures of her wedding that just
took place).
There are also some very nice scenes throughout
– and one magical one of Charlie running through the streets of HK in one
of her wedding dresses and Jordan photographing her. I wish we had seen
more of that side of Charlie because she goes through much of the film
looking very glum and miserable.
There is no new ground plowed in this film and
though it doesn’t rank with UFO’s best, it is still a fairly enjoyable
romantic comedy and though the ending isn’t quite Sense and Sensibility
– it is quite crowd pleasing.
